For many years, I have backed up the folder pmail/mail, as I thought that it contains both my mails and any settings. I did this in case of any computer issue. For the first time, there was one recently. It appears that something is missing, but I'm quite sure the mail is in there. After installing Pegasus and swapping the "mail" folder contents with the old one, it is not loading any of the mail or previous settings, . Is there some way to do this successfully?

The most important thing at this point is to protect the backup so I'm hopeful that when you swapped the contents of the "mail" folder that you did not move the files from the backup.

If the backup is undisturbed, try this.

• Make sure the new Pegasus Mail installation is not running.
• Rename its \MAIL folder to \MAIL_bad.
• Copy the entire \MAIL folder from the backup so that you end up with \MAIL and \MAIL_bad in the same folder, logically \PMail\MAIL and \PMail\MAIL_bad.
• Start Pegasus Mail and see if this solved the problem. Consider adding the -O (OH not Zero) option to the command line first. This will start Pegasus Mail in offline mode which will prevent any attempts to retrieve new mail while you are getting it working.

If all seems well, you can remove the \PMail\MAIL_bad folder once you're comfortable that you have a full recovery.
If all is not well, then we'll need analyze data in the backup to figure out whether your old Home or New mailbox folder was somewhere outside of \Mail.

A couple things to check.
In your backup, check the PMAIL/Programs/PMAIL.CFG file
If your setup is older, it might be single user mode and will have C:\PMAIL\MAIL
instead of multi-user setup that has C:\PMAIL\MAIL~N
If your old back was using single user mode and the new install is using mult-user the Pegasus will be looking for mail in wrong folder.
First Backup Folder to be safe,
An option would be to user PCONFIG32,EXE and use it to change the directory to C:\PMAIL\MAIL
Then run Pegasus, and it will look for mail folders in C:\PMAIL\MAIL instead of the default of C:\PMAIL\MAIL\Admin for multi-user setup.

Generally, the C:\PMAIL\MAIL would just have the PMAIL.USR file and then subdirectories of users.
In Single user mode, bht C:\PMAIL\MAIL will also have all the PMM and PMI files of folders.

So, might want to include info on what your back has in PMAIL\MAIL and what the new setup has.
Good Luck.

Brian Fluet:
Right after I install, there is no "Mail" folder. Maybe it is created after I open Pegasus for the first time. Is that as you expect? Should I try that?

msetzerii:
I only backed up "Mail" because that is where I thought the settings files are.

In "Mail", I find .PMI file and .PMM file, but no .USR file.

Thanks.

The C:\PMAIL\MAIL directory should have a PMAIL.USR file?
If you did a clean install, it might not have been created yet, since first login process prompts for you to setup the user.

On my Single-User setup my C:\PMAIL\MAIL\PMAIL.USR file has the following.
; PMAIL.USR Pegasus Mail user database.
A;Admin;Mail Administrator

C:\PMAIL\MAIL has total of 319 files that include 110 PMI and 110 PMM files.

The C:\PMAIL\Program\PMAIL.CFG shows this went typed.
type C:\PMAIL\Program\PMAIL.CFG
C:\PMAIL\MAILC:\PMAIL\MAIL

But that isn't real contents of file, since it has null termanated strings.
Hexedit of PMAIL.CFG
00000000 43 3A 5C 50 4D 41 49 4C 5C 4D 41 49 4C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C:\PMAIL\MAIL...........
00000018 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........................
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 43 3A 5C 50 4D 41 ..................C:\PMA
00000048 49 4C 5C 4D 41 49 4C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 IL\MAIL.................
00000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........................

Running PCONFIG32.EXE sets directory to C:\PMAIL\MAIL for mail directory.

On my setup with newer multi user setup.
C:\PMAIL\MAIL has 4 directores and the PMAIL.USR File only.

ADMIN
Jack
Jill
JILL2
PMAIL.USR

Contents of PMAIL.USR.
type PMAIL.USR
A;Admin;Mail Administrator
U;Jack;Jack Hill
U;Jill;Jill Hill

That setup , is the Default Admin user with all its files in subdirectory ADMIN.
Two other test users Jack and Jill
Jack is a test user with his mail in Jack sub Directory.
Jill was another test user that originally had all Mail in the subdirectory JILL,
but later had it move mail folders to JILL2.

This setup is not actually, used for any real mail. Just testing.
du . | sort -n
4 ./Jack/RmtFiles
8 ./ADMIN/RmtFiles
8 ./JILL2/RmtFiles
8 ./Jill/RmtFiles
12 ./ADMIN/OAUTH2
12 ./ADMIN/PND
16 ./JILL2/TCPLogs
56 ./Jill
184 ./JILL2
196 ./Jack
248 ./ADMIN/save
612 ./ADMIN
1056 .

The C:\PMAIL\Programs\PMAIL.CFG has
C:\PMAIL\MAIL~NC:\PMAIL\MAIL~N
with PCONFIG32.exe that would be to user C:\PMAIL\MAIL~N
which would be to use ~N as user name (Admin is default).

To Fix it (But of course make full backup of everything)

To conclude. I believe you original setup was an older single user setup, and your backup of the MAIL directory should have had a PMAIL.USR file in it. If not, create one with
Make file C:\PMAIL\MAIL\PMAIL.USR with these two lines.
; PMAIL.USR Pegasus Mail user database.
A;Admin;Mail Administrator

Then run C:\PMAIL\Programs\PCONFIG32.EXE
It should prompt for Config directory C:\PMAIL\Programs
then set user directory C:\PMAIL\MAIL

Save and exit.
Then run Pegasus, and it should open in single user mode, and would have all the mail folders, and the PND files should also work fine.

It is possible to change from single user mode to multi-user. One needs to copy all files from the C:\PMAIL\MAIL directory except PMAIL.USR to C:\PMAIL\MAIL\ADMIN but will have to manually change lines in PMAIL.INI that have C:\PMAIL\MAIL to C:\PMAIL\MAIL\ADMIN.
Working home mailbox location = C:\PMAIL\MAIL
New mailbox location = C:\PMAIL\MAIL

I generally backup C:\PMAIL directory as a whole, since isn't much bigger than just backing up MAIL
change to the Linux .wine/cdrive directory and backup all.
7zz a /home/msetzerii/pmsave-"$(date +%F)".7z PMAIL/*

So, issue is making sure the C:\PMAIL\Programs\PMAIL.CFG and C:\PMAIL\MAIL\PMAIL.USR files are set to match with setup.

Hope that helps. Been Using Pegasus since the old DOS version on Novell 2.2 server.
Good Luck.

Something is may be wrong. A new installation will always create a Mail folder, but, during the installation, you can specify where to create it which allows. This allows folks to locate their mail data on a different drive if desired.

This is no longer the case. Since v4.72, when you now do a new install, if you do not choose the "Preconfigure a mailbox" option, the installation is single user with \MAIL as the mailbox directory. There is no PMAIL.USR file nor any prompts to setup a user.

This is tripping folks up who do a new installation with the intent of copying mail data from an old installation that had a \MAIL\<username> folder structure (typically \MAIL\Admin when only one user).

@ray5450, I suggest stopping all efforts until this is determined. Let's start by you looking in your \MAil backup and report back on whether it contains only a PMAIL.USR file and at least one folder, or if it contains a bunch of files and folders. Report back what you find.

Brian Fluet:

Thank-you, for your response.

My backed up "Mail" folder does not contain a .usr file. It contains one folder called "RmtFiles", which is empty, and it contains a list of 190 files, most ending in .cnm One of the files is "Pmail.ini", if that helps.

(I have been using Pegasus since Netscape came out.)

In your backup, find the PMAIL.INI file and open it with a text editor, OR, to be safe, make a copy and open the copy to prevent any inadvertent editing of it.

Find these entries and let us know what their paths are:
Working home mailbox location
New mailbox location

Early in this discussion you mentioned that your new installation does not contain a \Mail folder. That should not be the case. Any installation should have a folder structure of C:\Pmail\Programs and C:\Pmail\MAIL UNLESS you specified a different folder for the mailboxes during installation. If you think this is a possibility, find the PMAIL.CFG file in the Programs folder, make a copy of it, open that with a text editor, report what path it contains.

BTW, what exactly are you trying to accomplish? Are you moving Pegasus Mail to a new PC? If so, what OS are you moving from and to?

In pmail.ini, both Working home mailbox location and New mailbox location indicate the same: pmail/mail

If I run Pegasus for the first time after I install it, it will then install the "mail" folder. I have not done that yet, in case you would have me take some other step first.

In my first post, what exactly happened was a hard drive failure. I am now trying to restore Pegasus.

I'm confused. I'm reviewing this thread and in your original post you said that you had swapped the mail folder content but running it did not show your settings or mail. Then you said "Right after I install, there is no "Mail" folder". Rather than trying to figure out what you current state is, I suggest you uninstall what you have and start fresh. I also suggest that you install the v4.81 public beta if you weren't. Don't be alarmed by the "beta" reference. It is rock solid. You can get it here: https://www.pmail.com/betas.htm

• After uninstalling, insure that the C:\Pmail folder is gone.
• When you do the installation, install to C:\Pmail. Be sure NOT to select the "preconfigure a mailbox" option.
• When you first run it, don't configure anything. Bypass any such prompts.
• Once you have its main window open without any configuration prompts, do a File > Exit.
• Confirm C:\Pmail\MAIL exists.
• Confirm that C:\Pmail\MAIL does not contain a PMAIL.USR file. Stop if it does.
• Replace the C:\Pmail\MAIL folder with the \Mail folder from your backup. Don't just copy files. Delete (or rename) the C:\Pmail\MAIL folder and then put a copy of the \Mail folder from your backup in its place.
• Now it's time to start Pegasus Mail and see what you have. Consider temporarily adding the -O (Oh, not zero) option to your shortcut. This will start Pegasus Mail in offline mode which will prevent any attempts at retrieving messages.

If all seems well, shut it down. Remove the -O command line option. Delete the renamed \MAIL folder if you went that route.

Good luck. It's late here. I'm calling it a night.

Just as a comment.

Believe if the Backup of the C:\PMAIL\MAIL directory would have been created first, rathern than after the install, and then the Pegasus was installed as an upgrade rather than a new install, Pegasus might have detected it as a single user install rather than a new install, but If it saw the C:\PMAIL\Programs directory as being empty, it still might have installed as a multi-user the the C:\PMAIL\Programs\PMAIL.CFG having the ~N versus not having it.

If installed as a clean install, then running PCONFIG32.EXE and changing the Mail Directory to C:\PMAIL\MAIL instead of the C:\PMAIL\MAIL~N

Then running Pegasus would probable work, and see all the folders.

Brian Fluet:
"I'm reviewing this thread and in your original post you said that you had swapped the mail folder content "
--This is after I installed and opened Pegasus.

"Then you said "Right after I install, there is no "Mail" folder"."
--This is after I installed Pegasus, but did not open Pegasus for the first time.

msetzerli:
You have the answer. I tried what you suggest. I uninstalled everything Pegasus, then put my old files in place, then installed. All good.

Thanks, everyone.